Robot 6

Ruling in Gaiman vs. McFarlane case spawns a Twitter feud

In the days following last week’s ruling in the long-running copyright dispute between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman, we heard from Gaiman, countless fans on both sides, and an Image Comics founder. However, we didn’t get comment from McFarlane — that is, until last night.

“Neil Gaiman has the absolute right to defend his position,” he wrote on Twitter. “That’s one of the great privileges we all have in this country.”

That’s it; just two sentences. That’s in stark contrast to Erik Larsen, who has tweeted on the subject more than 50 times since early Monday. His flurry of comments, which were largely critical of Gaiman, drew a few replies from the writer.

“Waves. Hi Erik,” Gaiman tweeted last night. “When Todd comes out of bankruptcy you owe me $40,000. […] Of course @erikjlarsen is grumpy over me winning again. He ran Image when the 1st round of the case gave me a $40,000 judgment against them. Last time @erikjlarsen blamed the loss not on Todd breaking the law, but on a female jury (& now on a female judge?) http://bit.ly/cbrs8i.”

This morning, Larsen fired back at Gaiman’s initial tweet with, “what did *I* ever do to you? Seriously. What was it that *I* personally did to you which would warrant such a thing?” Minutes later, he added: “How did you ever come up with Spawn on a horse, @neilhimself?”

When one Twitter follower, Brandon Fox, replied, “Dude, a judge, a jury, & the court of public opinion ALL believe @neilhimself deserves a portion of a characters he CO-created,” Larsen answered: “and a jury decided OJ Simpson didn’t kill his wife. What’s your point?”

zik

Only Erik Larsen would seriously think it was wise to draw even the slightest comparison between this and a MURDER trial. He lost all credibility when he claimed the outcome was because women couldn’t resist Gaiman’s British charms. Give me a break.

I’m really surprised by all of you. I would have thought that out of 14 posts, at least one of you would have made a comment on that pun in the headline. (Although I am happy that no one is excessively posting bs about how Gaiman is a terrible person and a hack who doesn’t deserve the right to go to court over a serious issue.)

Nik

I’m actually in awe that the quote from Todd McFarlane on twitter is actually the most mature one to be read in this little article. Especially considering these are grown men who are for the most part in the business of making toys and comics fewer and fewer people are apparently buying these days. As for Larsen, I’m not surprised that his own twit quote makes him out to look like a bigot, but wow, talk about a guy grossly ill-equipped, and unprepared for a battle of wits.

Madmike

I think Todd got screwed on the Tony Twist case, but in this instance Neil is clearly in the right. Larson saying otherwise, and acting like a douchebag, should send out a warning to anyone considering working or doing business with him.

funkygreenjerusalem

I think Todd got screwed on the Tony Twist case, but in this instance Neil is clearly in the right. Larson saying otherwise, and acting like a douchebag, should send out a warning to anyone considering working or doing business with him.

You do have to remember that Larsen, as an owner of image, got sued by Gaiman.
The way image is run, he’s going to have to pay money for a course of events he had no hand in, and made no money from.
It would make you a little bitter.

In his twitter, Neil says to Rich Johnston image could have gotten out of it if they’d apologized, but doesn’t respond to the question ‘did they know that’.

So the irony in the creators rights championship, is that Todd may be a hypocrite over rights, but Gaiman sued the largest publisher of creator owned books.

Adam Lichi

Bob

You do have to remember that Larsen, as an owner of image, got sued by Gaiman.
The way image is run, he’s going to have to pay money for a course of events he had no hand in, and made no money from.
It would make you a little bitter.

Man, if McFarlane makes the other Image partners pay for part of the damages, instead of insisting that every bit of it, attorney costs and all, come from his share in the company, then he’d have to be a bigger jerk then I thought he was.

Okay, that’s not true, he’d be exactly the same size jerk I always thought he was…

“You do have to remember that Larsen, as an owner of image, got sued by Gaiman.”

No. That’s not what happened. Image Comics is a partnership with no overarching owner.Each partner is responsible for his own stuff. Gaiman sued McFarlane, not Image Comics, so no, Larsen ther Image partners weren’t legally affected at all.

funkygreenjerusalem

It’s right there in Neil’s tweet “when Todd comes out of bankruptcy you owe me $40,000. […] Of course @erikjlarsen is grumpy over me winning again. He ran Image when the 1st round of the case gave me a $40,000 judgment against them.”

So Neil seems to think he’s owed $40K, and Erik is annoyed about being sued for $40K, and thinks it’s unfair that image is being hit for something they had nothing to do with.

Image Comics is a partnership with no overarching owner.Each partner is responsible for his own stuff. Gaiman sued McFarlane, not Image Comics, so no, Larsen ther Image partners weren’t legally affected at all.

I respect both Gaiman and Larsen, not just for their bodies of work, but for what each of them has done for the comics industry. I can see valid points on either sides of this argument, and I understand why both creators are getting so passionate about it. But I just HAD to do this: http://is.gd/e22p0

Chris Jones

funkygreenjerusalem

That said, surely Todd would cough up for that – not really fair to the other partners otherwise.

Hilariously, I got Spawn #9 in the mail this morning – the other week I decided to buy all the Moore, Gaiman, Sims, Miller and Morrison Spawn issues.
Just giving it a flick through was pretty funny ‘all that trouble over this?’.
(Which isn’t to slag either creator, but it’s just such a simple action story!)